Six days into the London Olympics and Egypt has just one medal. Ghada Abdel-Kader reports Though the Olympics don't end for another two weeks, the sports in which Egypt could have won a medal are drying up, and so too are the athletes. Many of the country's Egyptian contenders, especially the medal hopes, have already bid farewell to the tournament. A week into the Games, Egypt did pick up one medal, a silver in fencing by Alaaeddin Abou El-Kassem. But Abou El-Kassem was unfancied, coming out of the blue. Those who it was predicted would do well were almost no-shows. So far the biggest disappointment has been the early fall of Hisham Misbah, who won a bronze in judo in Beijing. In London, Misbah was eliminated yesterday in the first round losing to an unseeded player from Kazakhstan, Timur Bolat in the -90kg category. There was plenty of bad news before Misbah's collapse. In archery, Ahmed El-Nemer took 57th place with a score of 644 while his female teammate Nada Kamel came 56th with a score of 611. In artistic gymnastics, Salma El-Said finished 41st in the women's qualification of the all-round individual event with a score of 51.665 points. Mohamed El-Saharati came in 37th in the men's qualification of the all-round individual event with a score 82.598 points. In badminton, Hadia Hosni lost against Ireland's Chloe Magee 2-0 in the preliminary stage group I (21-17, 21-6) in the women's singles. In boxing, Azerbaijan's Soltan Migitinov beat Egypt's Mohamed Heikal 20-12 in the round of 32 in the men's middleweight 75kg division. Korean Soonchul Han defeated Egyptian Mohamed Elewa 11-6 points in the round of 32 in the men's light (60kg) category. Hisham Abdel-Aaal was the only boxer who qualified for the third round after beating Kenyan Njangiru Benson 19-16 in the flyweight (52kg) competition. In fencing, in round 64 of the women's individual foil competition, Venezuela's Johana Beatriz Fuenmayor beat Egypt's Eman El-Gammal 15-9 while Shaimaa El-Gammal was eliminated after losing 6-7 to Lebanese Mona Shaito. Eman Gaber, given a bye in round 64, was eliminated after losing 2-15 to France's Astrid Guyart in the individual foil. Malaysia's Yu Kean Peng defeated Egypt's Mannad Zeid 15-12 in round 64 of the individual sabre event. In judo, Egypt's Ahmed Awad was awarded a bye in the preliminary round in the men's -66kg competition, then defeated the UAE's Humaid Alderei (101 - 0001) in the elimination round of 32. Azerbaijan's Tarlan Karimov beat Awad (002-0002) in the elimination round of 16. In the men's -73kg category, HusseinHafiz was eliminated in round 16 after French Ugo Legrand defeated him (100-0104). In rowing, Sara Baraka and Fatma Rashed entered the repechage of the women's lightweight double sculls after finishing sixth in heat one with a time of 7:45.23. Mohamed Nofel and Omar Emira entered repechage of the men's lightweight double sculls after finishing fifth in heat 1, with a time of 6:59.57. In shooting, Nourhan Amer finished in 41st place in the qualifying round of the women's 10m air rifle competition with a score of 391 targets. Mona El-Hawari came in 17th place with a score of 51 targets in the women's skeet event. Karim Wagih ended 38th in the qualifying round of the men's 10m air pistol with a score of 566 targets. Mustafa Hamdi finished in 16th place in the qualifying round of the men's skeet event with a score 70 targets. In table tennis, in the women's singles event, Egypt's Dina Mesheref beat Nigerian Offiong Edem 4-2 (11-5, 2-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6, 11-3) in the preliminary round of the singles event. Mesheref, who is following in the footsteps of her grandfather, father and aunt who were national and African champions, reached the second round after beating Russian Yana Noskova 3-4 (12-10, 8-11, 4-11, 9-11, 14-12, 11-9, 11-9) in the first round. In the second round, Romania's Elizabeta Samara defeated Mesheref 4-1 (7-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-6, 11-8). Staying with tennis, Egyptian Nadeen El-Dawlatli was given a bye into the preliminary round, after which Denmark's Mie Skov defeated El-Dawlatli 4-0 (9-11, 6-11, 7-11, 9-11) in the first round. In the men's singles, Egypt's El-Sayed Lashine advanced to the second round after beating the Swede Par Gerell 4-3 (7-11, 11-4, 11-8, 12-10, 8-11, 8-11,11-9) in the first round. Lashine reached the third round after defeating Croatia's player Zoran Primorac 4-3 (11-6, 8-11, 12-10, 5-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-8 in the second round. Japanese Jun Mizutani beat Lashine 4-1 (11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6) in the third round. In the first round, Egyptian Omar Assar defeated the Ukraine's Yaroslav Zhmudenko 4-1 (8-11, 11-6, 13-11, 11-9, 12-14 ) to advance to the second round. But Assar was unable to reach the third round after being downed by Greece's Panagiotis Gionis 4-0 (11-5,11-9,11-7, 11-9) in the second round.
